Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) Competitors

Argan (NYSE:AGX) and Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (NASDAQ:GLDD) are both construction companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, earnings, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Do insiders & institutionals believe in AGX or GLDD?

79.4% of Argan shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock shares are held by institutional investors. 6.7% of Argan shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend AGX or GLDD?

Argan currently has a consensus price target of $193.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.45%. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a consensus price target of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.06%. Given Great Lakes Dredge & Dock's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is more favorable than Argan.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Argan	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AGX or GLDD?

Argan received 25 more outperform votes than Great Lakes Dredge & Dock when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 68.98% of users gave Argan an outperform vote while only 59.43% of users gave Great Lakes Dredge & Dock an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Argan	Outperform Votes 318 68.98%	Underperform Votes 143 31.02%
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	Outperform Votes 293 59.43%	Underperform Votes 200 40.57%

Which has more risk and volatility, AGX or GLDD?

Argan has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AGX or GLDD a better dividend stock?

Argan pays an annual dividend of $1.50 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock pays an annual dividend of $0.0840 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Argan pays out 21.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock pays out 8.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Argan has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, AGX or GLDD?

Argan has higher revenue and earnings than Great Lakes Dredge & Dock. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Argan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Argan	$910.16M	3.27	$32.36M	$7.13	30.57
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	$806.90M	0.97	$13.91M	$1.02	11.25

Does the media prefer AGX or GLDD?

In the previous week, Argan had 14 more articles in the media than Great Lakes Dredge & Dock. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Argan and 2 mentions for Great Lakes Dredge & Dock. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Argan's score of 0.96 indicating that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Argan	10 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AGX or GLDD more profitable?

Argan has a net margin of 8.20% compared to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock's net margin of 7.51%. Argan's return on equity of 21.66% beat Great Lakes Dredge & Dock's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Argan	8.20%	21.66%	9.73%
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock	7.51%	13.72%	5.10%

Summary

Argan beats Great Lakes Dredge & Dock on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.